INTRODUCTION

WFCAM is a wide field IR array camera being built for the United Kingdom
Infra Red Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii. It will be used partly for open competitive
time, but mostly to undertake a large public survey programme known as UKIDSS (UKIRT
Infrared Deep Sky Survey). A pipeline reduction system is under construction, which
will provide standardised data products, to open-time users as well as the UKIDSS
team. These standardised products will be ingested into a public on-line science
archive with sophisticated query and analysis facilities. In organisational terms,
there are three separate, though closely interlinked projects : (i) WFCAM
construction, (ii) UKIDSS survey design and implementation, and (iii) pipeline and
archive construction. This paper concentrates on the nature of the WFCAM archive,
but first summarises the camera construction and public survey projects.